Juliette now knows she may be the only one who can stop the Reestablishment. But to take them down, she'll need the help of the one person she never thought she could trust: Warner. And as they work together, Juliette will discover that everything she thought she knew-about Warner, her abilities, and even Adam-was wrong.

In Shatter Me, Tahereh Mafi created a captivating and original story that combined the best of dystopian and paranormal and was praised by Publishers Weekly as "a gripping read from an author who's not afraid to take risks." The sequel, Unravel Me, blew readers away with heart-racing twists and turns, and New York Times bestselling author Kami Garcia said it was "dangerous, sexy, romantic, and intense." Now this final book brings the series to a shocking and climactic end

My Review

WARNING: Possible spoilers!

I’d rather be shot dead screaming for justice than die alone in a prison of my own making.

Oh goodness, where do I even start? I don’t even know if I can write a review that can do this justice. This book got to me, just like Unravel Me did. So many times I was in danger of drowning in feels!!

We found out in Destroy Me that there was a reason for the way Warner is. In Unravel Me, we realized he’s not so much of a bad guy. But in Ignite Me, you realize that everything you thought you knew about him was wrong. The things that he did in Shatter Me that I thought were awful were a complete misconception! And here I thought I couldn’t love him any more than I already did!

“Why share your secrets with me?”

“Don’t do that,” he says. “Don’t ask me questions you already know the answers to. Twice I’ve laid myself bare for you and all it’s gotten me was a bullet wound and a broken heart. Don’t torture me,” he says, meeting my eyes again. “It’s a cruel thing to do, even to someone like me.”

ARGH. Damn you, Juliette! That killed me. I hated the way she always doubted him when he had made it 100% clear how he felt about her, and had bared his soul to her just to have her reject him over and over again. But while Juliette pissed me off in the beginning when it came to Warner, she reached a whole new level of badass as the story progressed.

I am no longer afraid of fear, and I will not let it rule me.

Fear will learn to fear me.

I will be unapologetic. I will live with no regrets. I will reach into the earth and rip out injustice and I will crush it in my bare hands.

I loved that she finally found her strength and learned to use it! The things she did toward the end – GAH, so freaking badass!! The choreographed display of Omega Point survivors was EPIC. View Spoiler »I loved how Juliette parted the crowd and they just became invisible from out of nowhere! I could picture it perfectly, and I would love to see that on the big screen!! « Hide Spoiler And the ending, on the ship? ACK. *dies of badassery*

If my hate letter to Adam didn’t clue you in, I despise him. This book only solidified that even more. Just when I thought he couldn’t dig his hole any deeper! When he told her – Juliette, the one who was locked in solitary for 264 days, the one who had never been able to touch a human being, who had unintentionally killed with her bare hands – that she doesn’t know what it means to truly suffer, I wanted to punch his teeth out. In fact, pretty much everything he said to her was awful and I wanted to beat the shit out of him for it. She didn’t deserve the things he said to her. View Spoiler »He would seriously rather see her die than be with Warner? Really, Adam? He tells her to go be with him and – I quote – “drop dead,” and says he was happier when he thought she was dead. AND he forced Juliette to touch Kenji…there was no guarantee it wouldn’t kill him! F*cking asshole! « Hide Spoiler

Warner said it best:

“Do you ever get exhausted being so wholly unbearable? You have as much charisma as the rotting innards of unidentified roadkill.”

Seriously, I couldn’t have said it better myself. In fact, I love this insult so much that I want to file it away for future use, haha! And I totally love Kenji for laughing at it:

I hear an abrupt wheezing noise and turn toward the sound. Kenji has a hand pressed to his mouth, desperately trying to suppress a smile. He’s shaking his head, holding up a hand in apology. And then he breaks, laughing out loud, snorting as he tries to muffle the sound. “I’m sorry,” he says, pressing his lips together, shaking his head again. “This is not a funny moment. It’s not. I’m not laughing.”

I LOVE KENJI. I seriously do, he’s hilarious! Plus he was the perfect best friend for Juliette, and I think he’s my favorite fictional best friend ever. I was SO glad that he and Juliette finally went back to normal! Their friendship is awesome – it’s refreshing to have an important male in a story that isn’t a love interest! There needs to be more of those!

“And we are quotation marks, inverted and upside down, clinging to one another at the end of this life sentence.”

So, now to go over my favorite subject: WARNER. OH MY GAWD I LOVE HIM. *presses hand to forehead* He cared so much for Juliette, did so much for her (including putting his own neck on the line to make her happy) that it killed me! Adam could never amount to that. View Spoiler »Warner was willing to give Adam a place to stay to make Juliette happy, yet Adam would rather her die than be happy with Warner. « Hide Spoiler What really killed me? Warner’s story about his birthdays and what his father did to him. I wanted to cry! It broke my heart. I was amazed at how much I felt for Warner and the empathy that story sparked with me.

Pretty much every scene with Warner in it made me want to die from the feels. I think I spontaneously combusted and melted into a little puddle several times over! View Spoiler » I’m SO glad she chose Warner!! THANK YOU TAHEREH THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOOOUUU. I love that when she found out she could control her power and touch anybody, she ran right to Warner! I ALMOST DIED. Ahhh, be still my beating heart <333 « Hide Spoiler

Adam and Warner’s reunion was beautiful. I’m glad that they were willing to put aside their differences to be a family, and that it was a bright spot of light in the darkness. And the ending was so perfect! Although I have to say, I was worried there for a minute. View Spoiler »I was going to DIE if something had happened to Warner! It was scary!! D: « Hide Spoiler But I’m very happy with the way everything turned out, and it was an epic ending to a series that I’m sad to say goodbye to!

Okay, so I couldn’t really narrow it down, sorry. This book is so quotable!

But there’s something about the darkness, the stillness of this hour, I think, that creates a language of its own. There’s a strange kind of freedom in the dark; a terrifying vulnerability we allow ourselves at exactly the wrong moment, tricked by the darkness into thinking it will keep our secrets. We forget that blackness is not a blanket; we forget that the sun will soon rise. But in the moment, at least, we feel brave enough to say things we’d never say in the light.

Words, I think, are such unpredictable creatures.

No gun, no sword, no army or king will ever be more powerful than a sentence. Swords may cut and kill, but words will stab and stay, burying themselves in our bones to become corpses we carry into the future, all the time digging and failing to rip their skeletons from our flesh.

I head straight into the living room, eager to put distance between me and whatever keeps happening to my head when Warner gets too close. I need air. I need a new brain. I need to jump out of a window and catch a ride with a dragon to a world far from here.

Haha, Warner has that effect on me too ;D

“That’s because you’re not fragile,” Kenji says, “If anything, everyone needs to protect themselves from you. You’re like a freaking beast,” he says. Then adds, “I mean, you know – like, a cute beast. A little beast that tears shit up and breaks the earth and sucks the life out of people.”

“Hey – jazz hands!” Kenji barks. “Get your ass back over here.” He makes it a point to look as irritated as possible. “Back to work. And this time, focus. You’re not an ape. Don’t just throw your shit everywhere.”

Warner actually laughs. Out loud.

“You don’t know what it was like in my head. I lived in a really dark place. I wasn’t safe in my own mind. I woke up every morning hoping to die and then spent the rest of the day wondering if maybe I was already dead because I couldn’t even tell the difference. I had a small thread of hope and I clung to it, but the majority of my life was spent waiting around to see if someone would take pity on me.”

Wow, this really captures the feeling of depression.

Words are like seeds, I think, planted into our hearts at a tender age. They take root in us as we grow, settling deep into our souls. The good words plant well. They flourish and find homes in our hearts. They build trunks around our spines, steadying us when we’re feeling most flimsy; planting our feet firmly when we’re feeling most unsure. But the bad words grow poorly. Our trunks infest and spoil until we are hollow and housing the interests of others and not our own. We are forced to eat the fruit those words have borne, held hostage by the branches growing arms around our necks, suffocating us to death, one word at a time.

“Are you out of your goddamn mind? You think we can take on two hundred soldiers? I know I am an extremely attractive man, J, but I am not Bruce Lee.”

15 Responses to “Review: Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi”

YES!!! I loved reading all the quotes again. I don’t think I can get enough of this book. It’s seriously so amazing! Warner was giving me all the feels too. And all the spoilers, I completely agree! I’ve seen a few negative reviews for this and everytime, I’m just like D: Awesome review Jessi!

I second that!!! I really think most of the negative reviews are a result of Team Adam people being pissed off about the way it turned out. *shrugs* We all have our opinions, right? I’ll stick to being Team Warner ;D

I have read some of those negative reviews that Laura mentioned too, and it seriously made me rethink (again) whether I want to read this series but then I read your “spoilers” (I know I shouldn’t have done it but sometimes you MUST) and now I want to read it. THAT ending sounds like something I’d <333 with all my <3

From what I’ve seen, the negative reviews have been mostly from hardcore Team Adam people. I was already Team Warner, so I was loving the transition that all of the characters took, but I’ve seen a LOT of Team Adam people getting very upset at the way it turned out!

And NAUGHTY CAYCE, NAUGHTY. Spoilers are bad! Haha. I hope you do read it, I loved it sooo much!
Happy Valentine’s Day darling :)

Yay I’m so glad you loved this one! I want to read it soon (dying to read it actually) and I love how great this book is. I’m a fan of Adam, but I don’t like now Tahereh was trying to make him more and more pathetic in the second book to push Juliette towards Warner. So right now, I’m impartial, but maybe my opinion will change at the end of this book :) I love Kenji as well, he tells it like it is and is hilarious at the same time! I feel like he’s the character that’s modeled after the author because of how hilarious she is on Twitter. Fantastic review, Jessi! <33

Lol so many quotes! I’m so psyched to read this book now–I’m so glad you liked it! Team Warner forever. Adam…gah, I’m disappointed in him. Now, if you excuse me, I’m off to purchase this book! :) Great review.

So you know there comes a time when you think your feels finally settled down, but then you see another review that has EVERY SINGLE QUOTE YOU LOVED and who manages to write a review that you weren’t able to (because yours was an incoherent mess) and then you read it, and then YOU’RE HYPERVENTILATING UNTIL IT’S LIKE YOUR SUFFOCATING?! xD Well, that’s me right now :P Warner was like seriously the highlight because have you ever seen a being more wonderful and beautifully tortured? >< I love that boy to bits!! And Kenji. I just feel like I'm laughing my butt off when he says stuff sometimes xD The other members can be really funny too, but Kenji… dear God… I cannot!! You wrote this review so well, Jessi! :) And you managed to sum up everything I was feeling! Wonderful review, dear, and you know what? #teamWarner for the win!! <33

Ok I totally just skipped your review because I JUST got the first book in the series this week on audio and don’t want to take a chance at any series spoilers. However, I’m just super excited that you’re giving 5 hearts this far along into the series! Such a good sign :)